A common charger for mobile phones

Mobile phone makers have responded to EU pressure and are switching to a universal standard for chargers

Mobile phones are fine — until the battery goes flat and you don’t have your charger with you. No calls. No access to your data or your contacts. Cue a frantic search for a compatible charger.

But that will soon be a problem of the past. The European Commission has persuaded mobile phone manufacturers to abandon the wasteful and inefficient system of different chargers for different phones.

Thanks to pressure from the Commission, 13 of the leading phone makers agreed on a harmonised system for data-enabled phones sold in the EU. The result on paper is a new technical standard. The result in the shops — and in the pockets and handbags of EU citizens — is that all these phones can be charged with a simple micro-USB plug. The result for the environment is less electrical waste.

The EU action has crystallised industry thinking — and accelerated a process that companies themselves might have taken years to get round to. In addition, the EU has achieved this without having to resort to complicated new legislation. It is a neat demonstration of one of the ways the EU can help its citizens — not just through laws, but by spearheading at European level a common-sense approach that benefits everyone.